So, Giant Bomb have now launched the Community Image Moderation Engine. This is fantastic because the more images the community deals with for The Bomb, the more time the staff at The Bomb Shelter (They don't call it that) can spend moderating our text submissions, like my awesome writeups for kids' games.

But, naturally, not everyone knows what to do 100% of the time, and some of the rules can be confusing. There are also some reasons to reject an image which are not listed on the Community Moderation page and you may not be sure if your reason for wanting to reject is okay or not. I've been community modding like an addict for as long as I've been able. In fact, damn, I really need some more Pepsi Max.

Anyway, let's go over some of the basics for now and I'll come back later with some of the more complex stuff in a Part 2 post if need be.

First, I'll address a huge issue: yes, it says "disaprove", yes, it should be "disapprove". We will eventually tell the team and have that fixed, for now, ignore it or laugh light-heartedly.

Remember:

IF IN DOUBT, SKIP THE IMAGE

Okay, now, here are some reasons to show an image the door you might not think of:

• If it has a broken background (For example, a white background on art which has back boxes around the art, you'll know this when you see it)
• If it is a model (Character model, car model etc.) and is being submitted to screenshot. If in doubt, look for an environment. If there's no environment or the background to the subject is a block colour, show it the door.
• That might look like HUD, but it's a watermark. A particular culprit for this is a dragon with an X, it sometimes seems like HUD, but it's a watermark. Also look out for small watermarks and those which are just transparent text. This works both ways. Some games have pretty ganky HUDs. If in doubt about a HUD element check another screen or ask someone who has played the game.
  
• It's concept art and it's being added to screenshots (Or vice versa). This is common, check.
• You see a bunch of shots in a row which are very similar. For example, the character has walked a couple of steps. These are a waste.
• At your discretion, show any images of menus the door unless the menu has some notability (Character screens are usually fine for example, but a shot of a screen for selecting the number of players would have to be pretty impressive not to warrant the door)
• Reject any screen attached to more than one game, it's obviously wrong somewhere
• Fanart can usually suck it
• A lot of people upload screens to both screenshot and box art galleries. This is a variant of a reason higher up the list but it's easier to miss. Always check for this.
• Boxart (More common) or any other image which has been stretched or squashed into the wrong aspect ratio
• Scans of manuals are a no
• Consensus amongst some of the hardcore CIMs is that wallpapers need to be shown the door
• Someone, possibly more than one person, has decided it's okay to upload a watermarked image if you censor the mark. It's not, show those the door